It's the little things, people.

5/3/11 School Report - OT: Swing work- doing well with this. Also worked with unifex cubes - put his name on some that you can have Nikko use at home. Worked on coloring/name printing.
Speech - new vocabulary - requesting - greetings

On Monday, Nikko reached a major milestone. He was able to independently pedal and steer a tricycle. I took video of it, with Ronin racing around and ahead of us.

Do you know what else was pretty cool? I posted the video on Facebook around 2am (lately the usual bed time for me, but my intentions are earlier). When I turned on the computer after 8:30am, I was stunned to see that 16 people "liked" the video link and 9 people had shared encouraging comments. I was so touched and overwhelmed that I almost started to cry. By the end of the day there were around 35 "likes" and 19 comments of encouragement. I wasn't expecting that kind of feedback, or any kind, at all. What I thought was cool was that everyone who interacted with that video post, by watching it or just liking it or even taking a moment to comment on it, left an impression with me that they understand how hard it was, how something so taken for granted could be a major milestone for another. Every single person who clicked on that video or left a comment got a big gold star in my personal book of "People to remember who were nice to Nikko."

All fun stuff aside, yesterday after Nikko came home from swim class, he was extremely fatigued and was nodding off before bed time. And then today he was just not himself. Nikko wasn't happy or laughing or interacting very much. After ABA, Rebecca alarmed me when she said, "Nikko seemed really tired today, and it looked like he was having an absent seizure because his eyes were rolling in the back of his head as he nodded off between drills." The absent seizure remark rattled me a little bit because I've been reading things online pertaining to the seizures that some kids with autism can be experiencing without even knowing it was a seizure. It really puts the non-verbal or emerging non-verbal kids (like Nikko) at a disadvantage. Some parents put their kid through an EEG to rule out the possibility of seizures, but I don't even want to start entertaining that thought if I don't have to. He ended the night kind of sober, just playing with the iPod Touch. I just checked on him this evening (approx. 1:30am) and his head was so sweaty that the pillowcase underneath was soaked. I wonder if Nikko is coming down with something. I REALLY hope not!